Gamers are a popular user community employing desktop 3D printers to enhance their gaming experience, and now there’s a new project that should make that usage even easier.

PrintableScenery is a company that’s been addressing this market for years, and they’ve appeared on this blog a few times, including last year.

They produce 3D models of many types of miniature structures for gamers to print and incorporate into their game designs. It’s sets of parts for assembly by the user in various game themes.

But one problem frequently encountered is in fact that assembly process. How do you fit such pieces together in large scales? Some standards have evolved, but it sounds like they are incomplete and not entirely effective.

One such defacto standard is the Dwarvenforge 2 inch dungeon tile system, where each piece is a 2 inch square floor with fixed walls.

An example of Printable Scenery's OpenLOCK 3D printed gaming system

Some ingenious folks have gone farther to build systems on top of that standard and one of them is PrintableScenery’s new OpenLOCK system. They explain:

The OpenLOCK system capitalizes on the strengths of PLA and ABS Plastic. Its designed as a base system that anyone can use to build elaborate constructions for games and toys.

The main difference of the OpenLOCK system is that walls and floors are interchangeable and lock together. Traditional dungeon and wargame scenery systems were made with resin and weren’t strong enough to withstand the connection requirements.

The company has posted the system for free download at Thingiverse, where you’ll find a 31-part set of interlocking pieces.

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has been writing Fabbaloo posts since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!

Fabbaloo is a daily online publication focusing on the 3D print and additive manufacturing industries. We provide deeper analysis of developments in current and future technologies as well as corporate matters. If there’s something happening in 3D technologies, especially FDM, SLA, SLS and Stereolithography, we’ll have an opinion about it.